Israeli forces launched a punishing wave of attacks against nuclear and military sites on Thursday night, threatening a wider war across the Middle East and dashing any chances of a U.S. deal with Iran.
Along with destroying Iranian nuclear sites, Israeli attacks killed Maj. Gen. Mohammad Bagheri, chief of staff of the Iranian armed forces, and Gen. Hossein Salami, commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, according to the Israel Defense Forces.
Top Iranian nuclear scientists were also hit in the raids, which involved 200-plus warplanes.
Iran has launched more than 100 drones against Israel, and additional counter-strikes are expected.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a long statement in English on Operation Rising Lion. Netanyahu said Iran is a growing threat to both Israel and the United States, and he vowed to continue the campaign as long as necessary.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said “our top priority is protecting American forces in the region” while warning “Iran should not target U.S. interests or personnel.”
While supporting Israel, a number of Democrats, including Sens. Chris Murphy (Conn.), Andy Kim (N.J.) and Tim Kaine (Va.), said the Israeli strikes were deliberately meant to derail U.S. nuclear negotiations with Iran. Murphy blamed President Donald Trump for failing to prevent a wider regional conflict.
Also: Speaker Mike Johnson is scheduled to address the Knesset – Israel’s parliament – in Jerusalem on June 22.
And in the United States. … The national political scene is on the verge of boiling over.
A U.S. senator — Democrat Alex Padilla of California — was thrown to the ground and handcuffed Thursday after he disrupted DHS Secretary Kristi Noem’s news conference in California.
Padilla posed no discernible threat to Noem, although Noem and other Trump administration officials claimed he “lunged” at her. Padilla – a longtime California official prior to coming to the Senate in 2021 – identified himself as a senator before being forcibly removed from the room.
Yet Padilla was put in handcuffs in the very state he represents in the Senate.
Moments after the incident, Rep. John Mannion (D-N.Y.), a freshman, stood up on the House floor and screamed at Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.), who was chatting with Democrats on their side of the chamber.
“Fucking get over there and get some fucking balls,” Mannion screamed on the House floor, bring everything to a halt. “The country’s falling apart.” The two later traded barbs online.
Rep. Mike Thompson (D-Calif.) followed that up by moving to adjourn the House, saying that Padilla was “attacked, illegally attacked, and [dragged] to the ground.” Padilla’s fellow Democratic senators held the Senate floor for several hours to defend Padilla and harangue the Trump administration.
A bit later, House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) told Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) to “Just shut up” when the junior Democrat repeatedly said the panel should subpoena Noem. Not to be outdone, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said that Frost has “been arrested as a former ANTIFA member.”
Decorum is an afterthought on Capitol Hill in 2025.
A boiling pot. Thursday was just the exclamation point on a brutally partisan week.
On Tuesday, Democratic Rep. LaMonica McIver (N.J.) was indicted on charges that she illegally interfered with federal officers during a May 9 protest at an ICE detention facility in Newark. McIver has denied any wrongdoing.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries called Alina Habba — Trump’s former defense lawyer and interim U.S. attorney in New Jersey who obtained the indictment — a “political hack … who is woefully unqualified to be the state’s top prosecutor.” Jeffries said he’d raise money to help McIver pay for her legal defense.
On Wednesday, Del. Stacey Plaskett, (D-V.I.) sparred with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent during a Ways and Means Committee hearing. After Bessent told Plaskett she was wrong about the stock market’s performance, here’s how Plaskett responded:
“Let me get something straight with you first here. I’ve seen you interrupt everyone. When you come to someone’s house, you respect their rules. And in this house, we don’t interrupt individuals and you’re not going to interrupt my time.”
Plaskett later unleashed a string of vulgar language on X in response to criticism of her performance.
The Trump factor: Top Democrats have been under tremendous pressure from their base to be more confrontational since Trump’s stunning victory in the November elections, an unprecedented political comeback that led from the Jan. 6 Capitol attack back to the Oval Office.
Trump helped Republicans take the Senate and hold the House, handing the GOP total control of Washington. Trump has used that like a blank check to do pretty much anything he wants.
Since Jan. 20, Trump has stunned Democrats with DOGE-led federal layoffs, trade wars, immigration raids, shutting down agencies and departments, environmental and regulatory rollbacks – everything they dreaded would happen.
This week, Trump federalized California National Guard troops over the objections of city and state officials and then sent them and the Marines into Los Angeles in response to anti-ICE riots. Trump will hold a massive military parade in D.C. this Saturday – also his 79th birthday – even while anti-Trump protestors stage “No Kings” rallies nationwide.
Yet the clashes aren’t only Democrat vs. Republican.
A number of GOP senators, principally Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), screamed at Stephen Miller, a key Trump aide, about the administration’s border funding figures for the reconciliation bill during a private meeting Thursday. Senate Republicans were dumbfounded at how their party was suddenly arguing about a topic that unifies them.
Republican Mary Miller (Ill.) posted on X last week that she found it “deeply troubling that Muslim was allowed to lead prayer in the House of Representatives.” But the man was a Sikh, not a Muslim. Following a barrage of criticism, Miller first revised and then deleted the offensive tweets.
The tensions coursing through the Capitol will have an impact on policy debates this Congress. Capitol Hill has to work together to fund the government in just 109 days. And remember: This acrimony will only grow worse as we near the 2026 midterms.
